The Note: And You Know Who You Were Then

— -- WASHINGTON, July 19

NEWS SUMMARY
There might be a Supreme Court announcement today; the timing might have been changed to move attention away from the Fitzgerald investigation; and the President might pick someone whose name has not been very much in circulation before now.

And/but from the warrens of the Department of Justice to the halls of the Hill to some of the smarter conservative websites (www.redstate.org), the buzz this morning is all about Judge Edith Brown Clement.

There is no official comment or confirmation from anyone who really knows, though some folks in a position to be among the first told are starting to tell us that she is the pick.

We can report, based on independent sourcing, that she sat down privately with President Bush at the White House within the fast few days.

It is entirely possible that all this buzz is wrong and that Clement was, in fact, interviewed and NOT chosen… and was informed about not being chosen… which fed all this…

But that is NOT what the buzz sounds like to our veteran ears. At this writing, no one else is known to have been interviewed, although, as the President himself said, not everyone would require such a meeting.

(Early CW on Clement: The less known of the two Ediths. Easily confirmable. A Southern charmer. A lack of a paper trail. Pro-business conservative. Sympathetic to civil, but not criminal, defendants when she was a district court judge. Conservative activists not sure of her stance on substantive due process and/or Roe v. Wade.)

And ABC News' Ed O'Keefe reported last night that Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), late for the annual Santorum-Specter staff softball game, confirmed that he met with President Bush regarding a potential Supreme Court nominee.

Specter refused to provide details of the meeting but strongly hinted that a final decision has been made.

Specter received the "invitation" to the meeting yesterday afternoon and initially declined due to the aforementioned softball game.

Apparently, the White House made it clear he should attend the meeting and the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee changed his plans.

Specter refused to say if any other congressional members were at the meeting and did not outline its length.

When asked about timing, Specter only smiled but reminded the ABC and CNN cameras present that his last chemotherapy treatment is Friday and today is Monday (i.e., Tuesday-Thursday are the dates to watch).

At that point, a senior member of Specter's staff commented, "We'll be in early tomorrow." Another item: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cancelled a planned visit to the US Attorney's office in Boston yesterday and sped through an appearance in Portland, Maine to return to Washington for hastily schedule meetings. (He was also seen leaving the White House at 8:16 am ET this morning.)

Let's be frank: it is very hard to imagine that the Democrats will filibuster Judge Clement, or that any more than a handful of the Republican Gang of Seven wouldn't vote for the nuclear option to quash said filibuster.

Aside from Judge Michael Luttig, who has turned into the left's do-or-die bugbear, or Edith Hollan Jones, who has a long record of opposition to Roe, we don't think the Dems will be spoiling for the fight in the end.

Mere ideological disagreement won't be enough to sustain a filibuster, so if the left is aghast at the prospect of a nominee being confirmed, Republicans fear they will dig for dirt to tar the pick personally.

The only way, in this scenario, that Democrats can successfully stop a nominee is to raise substantive questions about their ethics.

So, while we wait for what many think is a trigger about to be pulled:

President Bush welcomes Australian Prime Minister John Howard to the White House at 10:45 am ET. A joint press availability follows at 11:50 am ET. Meanwhile, Laura Bush and Janette Howard visit the Winslow Homer exhibit at the National Gallery.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses a joint session of Congress at 10:00 am ET. Following the joint session, House and Senate conferees meet to continue work on the energy bill, the Senate breaks for party policy luncheons (with a bite-at-the-apple chance for questions from the press), and the Senate tries to finalize a foreign ops bill.

Karl Rove is expected to attend a fundraiser tonight for Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA). (1700 Pennsylvania Avenue Ste. 950. Just look for the MoveOn protests.) Speaking of: the folks at MoveOn, they tell us they'll release a "television ad" today about Rove's role in the Plame case.

The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a 10:30 am ET hearing on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

At 11:30 am ET, Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) announce the introduction of a comprehensive border security and immigration reform bill.

In yet another effort to boost party support among Hispanic voters, RNC Chair Ken Mehlman and DNC Chair Howard Dean speak to the National Council of La Raza conference in Philadelphia today.

Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) speak today at Liberty in North Korea's conference, "Freedom For All Koreans".

SCOTUS: who's he gonna pick? and when?:
The Wall Street Journal's Cummings and Bravin have the timing issue most brazenly paraded: "Some White House advisers [Note the weasel word!!] are urging the president to expedite his announcement to deflect attention from a growing scandal…."

"'The Rove situation has accelerated it,' said a Republican lawyer who consults the White House on judicial issues. 'They would like to get something that will knock it off the front page.'"